Opinion
OP 23-0653
11-21-2023
CHAD ALLEN MILLER, Petitioner v. STATE OF MONTANA, and MISSOULA ASSESSMENT and SANCTION CENTER (MASC), COMMANDER KOWALSKI, Respondents.
ORDER
Chad Allen Miller petitions this Court for habeas corpus relief and requests his "immediate release in the interests of Justice." He states that he is still due additional credit for time served and that he was "never given credit for the time [he] served in prison or on parole for DC-14-355." He further states that he has completed his five-year sentence.
This Court is familiar with Miller and his reference to the criminal case. On September 15, 2022, the Flathead County District Court revoked his suspended sentence and sentenced Miller to the Department of Corrections (DOC) for a five-year, unsuspended term. The court gave credit of thirty-one days for time served in custody and awarded elapsed time credit of twenty-four months. On September 26, 2023, this Court granted Miller's petition for habeas corpus relief in part, thereby remanding his underlying case to the District Court to issue an amended judgment, correcting the credit for time served to thirty-five days and adding the original credit of 207 days. Miller v. Kowalski, No. OP 23-0392, Order (Mont. Sept. 26,2023).
Miller now argues that all of his time in prison and detention centers should be added together. He states that he is due 362 days while in the Montana State Prison as well as 217 days while on parole for this sentence. He refers to his sentence from the Cascade Comity District Court that runs concurrently and adds all the credit together across both sentences. Miller concludes that, when he adds all of his calculated time, he has served five years and 134 days, supporting his argument about discharging his sentence.
Miller's calculations are in error. Miller has received credit for his time while incarcerated in prison. This Court has clarified credit for time served recently. "When imposing a sentence... the court shall provide credit for time served by the offender before trial or sentencing." Killam v. Salmonsen, 2021 MT 196, ¶ 17, 405 Mont. 143, 492 P.3d 512 (citing § 46-18-201(9), MCA (2017)). Credit for time served is the time an offender spends detained upon arrest and unable to post bond until sentencing. Killam, ¶¶ 17-18. The Records Department in conjunction with the DOC and the Board of Pardons and Parole track Miller's time while incarcerated or on parole.
The clock started anew with Miller's sentence upon revocation, imposed in September 2022. The length, however, is shorter because of the 972 days of credit applied.Upon receipt of Miller's amended sentence upon revocation, the Records Department will recalculate his sentence, and Miller will receive a new sentence calculation.
Upon amendment, the court should award 35 days, 207 days, and two years of elapsed time credit, resulting in 972 days applied to Miller's sentence upon revocation.
Miller has not demonstrated that a writ of habeas corpus should issue here. He has received all the credit he is due, and he provides no law to support his claim of adding all the time together. Miller is not illegally incarcerated, and he is not entitled to habeas corpus relief. Section 46-22-101(1), MCA. He is not entitled to release. Accordingly, IT IS SO ORDERED that Miller's Petition for Writ of Habeas Corpus is DENIED and DISMISSED., The Clerk is directed to -provide a copy of this Order to Commander Kowalski, MASC; to counsel of record, and to Chad Allen Miller, MASC, 2340 Mullan Road, Missoula, Montana, 59808.